i'm thomas roberts in for tamron hall. following big, developing news. the presidential candidates in scramble. new polls showing the ticket fighti. any menonsmanaul an ctoakn colorado and governor romney crisscrosses the state of ohio, a state no republican president ever lost and where early voting begins next week. >> i know there's some people who want more for years bute don' woue years like the last four years. bigger government, stimulus. >> meanwhile, president obama is also in ohio trying to hold on to that lead there. according to theat

qupioll, ten points ahead and taking no chances. the president hammering his opponent at an event moments ago. >> i don't believe we can get very far wit leaders who wte off half the nation as a bunch spbi fhe o ne lives. and i've got to tell you. as i travel around ohio and as i look out on this crowd i don't see a lot of victims. i see hard working ohios. >> straight out on the trail and covering both cig nn w ron mott on the phone with congressman paul ryan's event in ohio. we have heard several messages over the last week of the republican campaign. what do we exct to hear today? >> reporter: thomas, good day to you. coressn ryusan hen wa to the event. we are at walker manufacturing making lawn mowers and we think the message is one governor romney brought here two days a

is that the economy cannot stand another four years of the president's failed economic licies and there out here in the mounin wtheat plains and hear congressman ryan talk about the keystone pipeline and focusing on the country's national resources, bringing energy jobs online and pting people back to work and pecting the prent to h >> o thing, though, ron, the obama campaign said, though, if romney loses ohio it is likely game over. is there a sense that the republican campaign is feeling that pressure? >> reporter: yeah. i think they're acknowledging they'r behind. they don't believeit's game eroepca president ever has gotten to the white house without taking ohio and even though he's behind, campaign insiders sayinghat their internal polling is much closer race than the public polls and will leave them whe ey ty a fht in

ohio on their hands. >> ron mott reporting. now christin welker in bowling green. >> reporter: good afternoon to you. president ama ju wrapped up his speech at bowling green ate university. he spoke be a pretty excited crowd of more than 5,000 people. heard you talking about the importance of ohio. this is president obama's 13th trip to ohio just this ar. so that gives you a sense of just how important it reay is to hisve cigstragy ites abo a week before early voting begins here in the buckeye state. the president today focusing the message touting the auto bailout and resonates with voters here in ohio. one o of every eight ohioans s tieheond and defended himself of criticism of the romney campaign enough on china open, romney took obama to task over

the controversial 47% commen. analysts believehat part of this uptick thatre sinn sof swg state polling may be a result of those 47% comments and here if you look at the polls he is leading by as much as 8 to 10 points depending on which poll you're looking at but the obama campan saying ey're not sking the otba. 'rino run the campaign as if they're five to ten points behind. strong about the ground game here. it's stronger than the ground game in 2008 and the obama campaign concedes that. thom? >> kristen welker reporting, thanks so much. joining me now is keith boyken, michael smerkonish and hogan ginley. d ta with a brand new

quinnipiac/"the new york times" poll with mitt romney behind ten points in t battleground state of ohio. down nine in florida. 12 points in pennsylvania. hogan,ooking at the numbers, given the state, does romney asihhe white house anymore? >> i think those numbers are a little bit inflated but i think for the most part everyone understands barack obarack becr litt bit cse and it's got to be a great debate and distance himself from the obama plan in the sense to attack the president, attack the president in a way that he's never been attacked before and show the discrepancieand quit trying to beikable and focn bng cae i s i'm the person capable of winning this election and capable of turning the country around. we have seen record unemployment under a this president, women or minorities. unemployment is up. poverty is up. gas prices are up.

and talk about howou'r cae toet those things righted, get the ship righted and how you can lead the country out of where we are right now. that's what he's got to do and been unableo do so focused on a few self inflicted wounds and as we all know those self flicd ds din because they undergird the stereotype that exists that he's cold and doesn't care about other american who is are less fortunate. that's not true but his gaffes have been really seriously injuring to himecause they haveuitenkrgd stereotype that already exists. >> self inflicting wounds, the ones you refer to, could be tr tru tru truly detrimental. hard to believe is ia fit o dtl lngn ca straight at the american viewer and the people ad that's out now and targeting the middle class and those

voters. take a look. >> president oma and i both care about poor and middle css families. lle ts better for m pie them. we shouldn't measure compassion by how many people are on welfare. we should mention compassion by how many people are able to get off welfare and get a good paying job. >> all right. so michael, just because he uses the wordomio ove a erinnd maybe doesn't mean he has the compassion and trying to show some here. with early voting in ohio starting next week, is it too late for an ad like this and to to try to bring up a narrative like this after down playing 47% you know, thomas, when mr. halperin write "game change" the sequel, that will have a chapter. that was a critical -- >> half the moe's already

, ae they can go straight to the tape. >> the next opportunity that he has to turn thi around is a week from tonight and i'm agreeing with governor rendell that he needs to win that debate and if he doesn'win that kear error by the less and les president or some world event that doesn't bode well for his presidency. it becomes more difficult. i dot look at as if there's three debates. that's one dete. theppornity wilbeos . ovrendell was on "morning joe" today. >> if i were planning a presidential campaign, there's less than one. stay on course. don't get distracted by the eme of the day. all of the romney campaign seems to be doing is reacting to the theme of the day. >> the theme of the day. so keh, as w tal abo this, the romney camp seized on comments of the president, 14-year-d videotape they dredged up when president obama

was a state senator in illinois pounding away on the bump in the road comment that was taped on "60 minutes" and just aired this ay. dot s that the romney campaign is grasping at straws at this point trying to gain the traction that they have tried to get all along? >> it's almost like they're sinking and they're gsping for a life preserver to stay afloat. ip a t bnith youhowed the program and romney made the point that obama is constantly trying to pick winners and losers but he's picking losers but if that's the case he would be supporting mitt romney. they're ten pointsbehind in ohio, a state that noepubca sve t white house without winning. that said, almost insurmountable challenge for mitt romney. it's a bigger problem for the obama campaign and that's overconfidence. the polls look so goo for obama right now that the obama >> hogan, similar question to

you because this time on the romney surrogates basically blaming the media. when in doubt, g to that. "wall street journal" writes that mr. romney would do better foed errors than less on the fourth estate's political bias. is romney looking do you think though for any excusnow to explain why he's down in this atrysn talking oc about and the fact that that should be a strong suit and winning on that? >> igt. well, i mean, look. everyone knows that predominant amount of the mediaill vote i mean, t been pretty much proven by every poll and statistic out there. >> what was that? >> white house press corpse votes democratic. most of the white house press

rps votesmocric 'shi new. don't whine an it. you know the battlefield you're entering in to. what you have got to go is shift the bat toll the ground you want to battle upon and focus on the economy, focus on the failures of this president and as mentioned before t self flicd wod t ttt bad for mitt romney because it undergirds the stereotype. he needs to shift focus to the already there stereotype of barack obama. he's a nice guy but way over his head. you want a beer with him, that's fine. but if you don't hav abejob you can't have a beer. >> one thing to blame it on reporters but how is it the fault of the roerpts he doesn't run on the record of ssachusetts and bain was found mak t itoonnd how is it reporters' faults that there was a secretly taped

videotape in florida that showed him saying that 47% of the country are moochers? it's the media's fault because they're reporting the things that come out of hismout >> no, no, no. i'm not -- no. i'm tmimedia. i'm saying it's a fact that an overwhelming number of people in the media is liberal. that's fine. we know that going in. >> here's the overwhelming fact, we report what's coming out of his mouth. the interview on cnn saying i don't c about the very or. wh f h tli >> i know. no. i'm with you. i'm not disagreeing with you. i understand that. that's my point. the self inflicted wound is killing mitt romney predominantly because the self inflicted wounds are going t the core arguments from the other side. that he'somef cold, heartless businessman that doesn't care about people. i don't agree with that but that's what the leaked tapes and those things are going to undergird. shift it to oba. talk about him not being capable as a president and then debe

obama's perfma av tf inflicted wounds that tend to damage this campaign and the reporters have to report on it. of course you do. it's very salacious, grainy video. it's the gd stuff. the behind the scenes stuff. of course you're going to report it. >> it doesn't help when you mention 97 according to to some poll i've never seen. 97% of white house reporters voting democratic. it's a conspiracy theory. the same time ronald reagan won the presidency twice. george w. sh won the presidencytwe. wiheamo-ed media liberal out there. why don't you focus on getting the guy elected and showing what his strong points are? if you do that maybe you'd have a chance but the problem is -- >> i age. >> people don't know what mitt romneytand for. even rubcans are conrned abth >> i agree. >> the last word, thomas, we tend to have a conversation about how there are 41 days

left. there aren't. parts of the country are already voting and as you pointed out next tsday in ohio, so it's on right now. so, itot as if tom cagnth weeks can do something. it's immediate. >> yeah. you're talking about that. we are living in it right now and talk about the 41 days to go. >> real quicy. >> go ahead. >> adding elizabeth dole come pain that86% of the people i atut opponent they would never vote for the opponent and ran the ad. extremely controversial. the problem is 67% of the people already voted. this can be lostery quickly in early voting. no doubtbout it. >> except that obams been d mi rynior most four years idfofive years and people know about the candidates. there's little new to come out in six weeks. >> we shall see. the first debate on october 3rd. >> if they got it, use it. >> thanks so much. iran's president ahmadinejad makes the final and posbly most controversial address before the u. abl a

t morning and egypt's new president delivers the first u.n. speech. next i'm going to talk to a former state department officer and reporter of "time" magazine. the nfl lockout, therere ag resumed talks.rend t what do you think? has the debacle over the replacements refs destroyed the reputation of the nfl? [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit, something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the oy 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness ofruit the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be.

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sous hours ago iran president mahmoud ahmadinejad made the final speech to the

u.n. general assembly. protesters were outsid ahmadinejad struck some very familiar themes. rato arms race and intimidation by nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction by the hegemonic powers have become prevalent. continued threat by the uncivilized zionists to resort to military action against our great nation ile example of this bitter reality. >> joining me now for reaction is jim frederic, international editor and executive editor of "time" magazine and joel rubin, former state department officer. good to have you here. >> thank you, thomas. >>let's just dive in, m. as wn c here, ahmadinejad striking some very familiar themes. kind of flowery. >> yeah. >> off the top there but making some not so subtle reference that what he perceives to be israel being a threat. but also saying that no one

around the world flsaf and se. ig >>d demonizing everybody else that does have stockpiles of weapons and he can't get any. >> absolutely. i think what's interesting about, you know, this particular speech which is a ailgt one, we have kind of come to look a ahmadinejad as a kind of comic relief of the things he sd i wetdl serious and scary and the speech for him fairly restrained. he didn't whip out any holocaust denial or overtly threaten anyone or demonize obama or israel and didn't mention iael sexample. >> zionists. >> exactly. struck the familiar themes of why should the western powers and people in the neighborhood have weapons and we don't? i think it's a swan song and for hia little bit restined >>erpl to watch today, that people were watching is egyptian president mohammed morsi addressing the u.n. for

the first time take a look. >> translator: the behaviory some, some individuals and the inlts hn thero of islam muhammad is rejected. we reject this. we cannot accept it. and we will be the opponents of those who do this. we will not allow anyone to do this. >>o n morsi also reiterated he is against the use of violence. and yesterday, joel, president obama offered this robus defense of freedom of speech as a pre-eminent right in our country but meanwhile while thi speech comesogether is there liwese two visions? >> thank you, thomas, for having me. there's really not a conflict. in a sense, president obama and netanyahu bracketing the speeches today of ahmadinejad and morsi and we witness something fasnating which i

m stgypt is now taking a more aggressive leadership role in the middle east while iran has become more isolated, is on the ropes and ahmadinejad is season almost as a past, a clowny-type figure but th disssioofre o ch, of how to deal with violence against embassies, it's the president saking with morsi about this and calmed down the situation in cairo so i think it's a dialogue to see more of and doesn't seem to ba clash not workable. >> all right. so m, as joel said, egypt wanting to take more of a leadership role here and iran astro sized than ever before and talking about syria, world leader after world leader and president obama condemn the assad regime in syri jim, can wexpec t s a montthon >> i mean, to continue that theme, i think morsi that really is the breakout leader of the past couple of months and you see compare him to ahmadinejad.

just how seriously as a statesman to be taken and not perceived anybody' lap dog. he today hed n uncertain terms of military interception in syria and a couple of weeks ago when he was in teheran he took a hard line with the iranians saying the support of the syriaregime is unrealistic and maybe onstma >>l, do you agree with that and the terms of movement for the u.n. against syria? >> i do. i think to piggyback on what jim said, morsi is showing that egypt is going to chart their own path. they're open to the west, they have a relationship th the united stas that'song and theam ty' a democracy that is an islamic democracy, a political islamic party running it and charting a path to try to play all different angles and they criticized israel. they criticized iran. certainly, in the days ahead it's interesting towatc winor and the

president's relationship develop and the president give the interview about not being an ally, not being an enemy, but egypt has been such a critical ly over the years, certaly through mubarak and relied ll thaent and billion of taxpayer dollars. does it come down now more to who needs more more? >> egypt has a treaty definition is and has been an ally and probably will be an ally i think an derrorte at oftobama's comments could have been interpreted as is a personal message while egypt is an ally, you know, it is not -- there are strings attached a we need to make sure to do business with each other, mano man, person t rs lear to ea. i think that morsi is charting his own path but he knows that the united states is the most valuable ally that egypt is going to have. >> thank you. >> thank you, gentlemen.

next senator mas h toki a b new campaign ad. >> on august 19th, todd akin said only some rapes are legitimate. what will he say next? >> we'll get to today's first read with senior political editor mark murray who say the gop has aurinyil clb to win the senate. new details on a settlement of students pepper sprayed. remember this? during an occupy protest.

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l liberties union expected to receive about $30,000 each from the university following approval of a federal judge. videos online of that incident in november of 2011 a rallying point for the occupy wall street movement. break out as a rally in greece, protest earls throwing fire bombs and setting fire to trees. we take you there for a full update. plus, a new poll revealing how many americans believe the health care law will be repealed and the results may surprise you on that. just one of the thin we thoughu ldw. align. align naturally helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ ooh, baby, can i do for you today? ♪ try align today. we create sy to use, powerful trading tools foall. okth streaming charts! they're totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. that's genius! strategies, chains, positions.

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tubny' push to win back the senate is beginning to look tougher and tougher. according to the first read team, if president obama wins the presidential contest, republicans would need to pick up a net of four senate seats to get that majority. senator todd akin didinto spls from his own party to withdrawal, that's a difficult goal to achieve.

here's how mark halperin put it on "morning joe" today. >> democrats could pick up a seat in the senate and i don't know what happento the hoe. if the president winsy the argi and they take -- they pick up the senate seat rather than lose control of the senate, the house is going to be in play. >> so joining me now is editor mark murray. mark, with akin staying in this ra, and doggedly so. i mean, there have been a lot of s heig s see him get out, which races, though, do you see as republicans' best chances to win back the senate? how likely are they win? >> thomas, as you mentioned, right now senate republicans are facing a bit ofn uphill climb. not impossible. it is doable. but iis an uphil cli. some of the races that i'm looking at most closely is seeing at the 50-50 contests and virginia, the battle between tim cain and george allen. very well if republicans are going to try to run the table to either pick up aet of four

seats that tyee i prenamins re-election, virginia will probably have to be a very big component there. republicans also have to hold on to the 50-50 ctest in nevada between senator dean heller and shelly berkeley. they're two contests and one that isaetve all been watchi, beeen elizabeth warren and scott brown. republicans really need to be able to win that so they can actually net elsewhere. >> all right. so one thing, though, when it comes to the todd akin-clare caill race, 're seeing the first mccaskill ad taking him to task aut the legitimate rape comments. let's take a look. >> todd akin said he didn't like social security. on september 3rd, 2011, todd akin said medicar was unconstition. ma16inai he wants to abolish the minimum wage and

august 19th todd akin said only some rapes are legitimate. what will he say next? >> so, mark this is the first timehe's usetuthe legitimate rape comment. what strikes you about this ad in general? >> we knew it was coming and came pretty much minutes if not hours after we all knew that todd akin was officially going to remain in the missouri senate contest. the other thi i thinks quite stringentily m maging ads that clare mccaskill could run with the republicans and mitt romney all saying that somehow todd akin needed to step down, i wouldn't be surprised if she had an ad atet ts the republicans sayg unfit to serve in the u.s. senate. >> we'll get you on record of having said that. we'll see what happens over the next cple of weeks. let's do talk about the democrats winning back the house because here's what bill kristol wrote saying if the pol are

right and if nothing much changes over the next six weeks, the house could well be in play and says i don't think one can say it's now out of question that we could wake up on the morning of november 7th to the prospect of speaker nancy pelo. how worried areepubcans ttnt >> well, they're of course they think that it's a potential and there is a path for democrats to be able to pick up the 25 seats they need to take the majority but right now most observers actually think that's unlikely. one due to redistricting. republicans strengthen a lot of that.lndy also, when we have seen presidents win re-election, whether bill clinton in 1996 or george w. bush in 2004 that didn't really core late to a lot of shift of house races so it's po tthink that ober democrats at best case only pick up in the single digits of house seats, well below the 25 they need. >> thanks so much. we have talked about the latest

lls showing president obama opening up leads in tee key swing states. we have ohio, pennsylvania, flora but digging deeper in to those numbers, a substantial gender gap in those states. in ohio, president obama has a 25-point lead with women and mitt romney leads by 8 points among men. in pennsylvania, president obama has 21-point lead among women d romney holds a 1-td m a then in florida president obama a 9-point lead with women and mitt romney leads by 3 points among men. but with all that focus on women, there's an article in politico arguing that white men may be the key in this election. that article is the work of seolal writer louis romano who joins me now. after decades, you say after taking a backseat to women and latinos, middle class white men are finding themselves front and center again and potential game changers for this election. >> well, that's right. the g cedy both

sides. i don't think that they were necessarily ignored before. but everybody had sort of their demographic and republicans never ha to worry about losing them. democrats knew tt they uld never gethennd still sort of where they are but what they can't do is lose any. so they're each trying to desperately hold on to what they have. otherwise they can't win. arguab arguably, some experts think that romney needs to get it up to 65%l ohect because he doesn't have anywhere else to go. latinos really aren't going to support him and women, he's not de great inroads with women and men, white men are the ones who have been hit worse with the economy so each side is hoping th the botmsnal out with white men. >> louis, back historically, president obama got 41% of the white male vote in '08 and swung back to the traditional

republican support for the 2010 midterms. when the big infcer for th now? >> you kn, i t a 's the economy. i think that these are the men, these are largely middle class men. we are not talking about -- i mean, the republicans are always going to win the white wealthy me e swing voters here are the middle class men and tho are the ones that have been hurt the hardest and not ideological. they're the guys that were the reagan democrats. they just a want and this economy has really, really hurt them. i think that they were looking at romney as maybe mebody, you thow, that cldringhem hink recent events and mistakes on romney's part hurt him with them, specifically the 47% comment he made in florida a few of the guys in iowa said they were leaning towards romney and shook them up, that he was a y woo whye was never going to have middle class interests. >> louis romano, thank you.

>> you're welcome. thank you. violence eruptedoday as tens of thoands of greeks took to the streets of athens to protest up coming austeri urth cnbc's julia chatterly is in athens with more. >> reporter: thanks, thomas. things are returning to normal. the traffic, perhaps the only signs of what we saw some lter that lines the et thprotests did begin peacefully. tens of thousands of people here to show their contempt of the latest austerity membshls and t anarchists arrived. they had petro bbs andegan eng tic and setting up and then the crowds dispersed. what we're seeing now, no sign of the protests. very, very peaceful on the streets and key point to remember is this was set to

coincide with a vote in parlment thaven ypp. they still have to be part of parliament and agreed. that's going to happen over the next week or so and the risk is seeing today happens again later on and it actually escalates because at that point the people here are going to understand just what the details of these ar the focused right now on what's going on in spain, too. and the protests in portugal, a definite sense here it's not just greece and it's fally saying no to austerity. no to more cuts for now, though, back to you. coming up h rising home prices could boost president obama's chances. i'll speak with the author of "foreclosure nation." that's coming up. first, there's a lot going on here. a new poll shows few aricans believe president obama's siurea caw will be repealed despite republican promises of that. in the ap/gfk poll, a total of

72% believe it will take full effect with minor changes. joked that, yes, her husband does shop at costco. >> would you say he's frugal or cheap? >> cheap. >> cheap? wow. really cheap? >> okay, yeah. do y want to know what he does when we leave the house? he turns offhe hot water when we come -- >> turns off the water heater? >> when we come back, he forgets he has to turn it on and cold showers, they're not that bad. bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance spch. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit bya meteor. wow, your hair looks great.

didn't realize they did photosh her y,d on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fed office. now se 50% bners. [ male announcer ] you start your day... love you, too. ...thinking about what's imptant to you -- your family... ...the mortgage... the kids' college tuition. [ cellphone ringing ] t life insance [ horn honking ] life is unpredictable. that's why at fidelity life we want you to think about term life insurance -- taking care of your family's future expenses if something happens to you. it's easy. we get to know you and your needs, th give you our best quote and our competitors'. you choose and save up to 70%. thouea50 of coverage for just $15 a month. we offer plans with no medical exam, and we've been in business for over 100 years.

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exposed to air pollution thrgh th mothers had a higr rf tamin d deficiencies than those not exposed. a new sign of economic recovery and one that affects millns omens home values. finally on the rise posting the strongest ganls since 2005. this according to the new data of the 20 biggest cities in the country. home prices have gone up 6% in the first 7 months of 2012. that's the good news. bad news is that sales of new homes are down from last month. realat ane and author joins me now to sort it out for us. sherry, are we seeing the sustainable trend of home prices moving up? are weeeing the trends move in the right direction? >> tom, there's no question that lltaletrend, s bend us now whether it's the numbers are going up or not, 1.5% annual

appreciation is not what we would historically call a healthy housing market but beer than nothing. to really see some sustainable ward mobite wve t omngut wages because average americans still can't afford to continue buying more expensive homes. >> explain why are the reasons existing to see the sales go down. >> well, that's a market specific sittion but for the most part it wit the erarcf inventory at this point in part because so many homes are still backlogged in the foreclosure and default phase. for every home foreclosed, we have three homes where the homeowner is late on t mortgage or in default or foreclosure. the other reon ishat c of the buyer that is are buying in the busiest markets are investors and those folks are basing the price they bid on the rental value of the me, not on as much comparable sales using them for rentals and

rent ratesave gone up 20% since the bubbl so it actulyci l of other folks out of the market but causing home prices to go up even if sales aren't necessarily keeping pace. >> you know, house tore cli, though, this time of year is not the best for the market with kids back in school and parents and family like to be settled by thisimotair fe their family lives with, you know, with the kids are doing with the schools but do you think that after the election, whoever's elected that the administration will support housing versus renting and see something bigger in the spring? >>hat' su r, super important. probably more important now than ever before. we know as far as wages go and what average folks, not investors, average americans pay for a home depends on how much they're earning. employment is struggling along and that'shat's happening with homepr,o. the ngut very, very slowly. struggling along with unemployment. we know that even those folks

employed have not seen a raise in two or three years and average americans earning less than ten years ago. how the hk are they supsed to b ping morse eag less money? some initiatives from washington that really strongly support sustainable housing are going to be essential to promoting the american dream moving forward. >> really is the lynch pin for the american dream is home ownership. everybody growing up knows th. t. anatso t traditional ones like the mortgage interest deduction and new, creative initiatives like a rent to own program. >> great insight. thank you. coming up next in today's news nion gut check, do you ba damaged the nfl's ref reputation? first, the singing legend made famous by "moon river" passed away. andy williams died in his home last night in branson, missouri, after yearlong battle with

a tv show on nbc in 1962 as well as a christmas special. along with "moon river" williams was best known for singing "happy heart" and "it's the most wonderful time of the year." andy williams was 84 years o. i'm done! "are you a cool mom?" i'm gonna find out. [ female announcer ] swiffer wetjet's pads are better than ever. now they have the scrubbing power of mr. clean magiraser so you don't have to get down on your hands and knees to scrub away tough, dried-on stains. hey, do you guys think i'm "momtacular" or "momtrocious"? ♪ [ female announcer ] swiffer. now with the scrubbing power of mrclean magic eraser. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them.

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all right. it's time for the "news nation "gut check. talks are on back on with the nfl and referee association. public outraged exploded over a number of bad calls in recent games including a questionable catch that left seattle or let seattle be green bay on monday and then this, the kick by atref.rathat angered bill he got a $50,000 fine for it.

rob, i want to show everybody the front of "the post." oh say can't owe e? they have a good time with the headlines. but explain what the very latest is now. that's been talk this afternoon that maybe they were going to go back under one roof and hash this out. >> yeah, thomas. after monday night's debacle, the owners and officials stayed up until 2:0 ithe morning lastig tg hs thing out. reports are coming out now this afternoon that they're very close, that they have agreed on some key issues. the big issue that's still outstanding, of course, the one that's always a problem in negotiations, money. but apparentl they are getting close. and i think a lot of people now owin thihiha t replacement refs if not by tomorrow night which is the next scheduled game in the nfl will be out of there and the regular officials back by this weekend. nothing confirmed yet but they seem to be close.

>> when we talk about this, the money, the league eard lt yearo t dds of the refs, basically where the -- you know, the crater is between the two sides, is the league being unreasonable by not giving in to whathey'd like to see? >> well, i mean, if you just lo at e er it s of ridiculous. right? this is a rounding error in the league's revenues. you are talking about a league making over $9 billion a year across the board and the officials, what they're asking for is this is all retirement related. they want a defined pension and e league wants to shihe t 401k and the difference for the league is somewhere between $3 million and $4 million dollars a year. this is really insignificant. i think the bigger part of it is, thomas, the issue of control. and the leag wants to have more contr over the ferees. theyanto eols frankly get rid of referees they don't think are doing a good job and making bad calls. they wanted a reserve pool of

referees available to put in to games when the regular officials are not available. so a lot of this is control orient but the money looking diusbe fighting over this small amount of money tie owners fighting to have the replacement refs that have been watching fill in? >>ot these guys. they want actual good officials to be able to fill these. these guys -- >> aclarification. >> these guys are not eve si i college refs. they're college iii and high school and some according to a report are rejects of the lingerie football league. i don't know if you're familiar with that. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> not serious football. >> totally familiar wit it on the front page of "daily news" and totally for that baltimore call just because it's for e ravens and i'm a fan. thanks so much. what does your gut tell you? has the lockout damaged if nthe

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